We had a similar situation at work the other day. We were interviewing a new guy, an ethnic German living in Ireland, and he asked in a kindof worried way "will I be the only foreigner there?". We looked around the Melbourne, Australia office, and did a quick tally:
- 1 x Brazil - 1 x Phillipines - 1 x Malaysia - 2 x England - 3 x New Zealand - 3 x Australia
Well, about 15 years ago, I had a summer job in a chemical factory that made those toilet blocks that you drop in the tank, and it makes your loo water blue, or whatever.
Anyway, my job was crappy (pulling chemical blocks out of the hot moulding maching, and dropping them in blister-pack covers before the stamping machine landed on them (of course, the hand guard had long since been removed, they put it back on whenever the inspectors came)). We came home with a headache every day, dyed blue from the elbows down, smelling of toilet chemicals. It was impossible to get the blue off, and it took 2-3 weeks after I finished working there before I got back to my original colour.
BUT the worst job in the place must've been the chemical guy, who mixed up the nasty stuff at full strength (by the time I saw it, it was 1/100 dilution). The word on the floor was that the most one of those guys used to "survive" was six months, before they went mad, or got poisened or something. Apparently this was their tenth guy in five or six years! They said it made him really agressive and short-tempered, and he had blue cheast, arms, chin and nose.
Ahhh, crappy student summer jobs! I can't believe people did that for a career!
Slashdot Mirror
We had a similar situation at work the other day. We were interviewing a new guy, an ethnic German living in Ireland, and he asked in a kindof worried way "will I be the only foreigner there?". We looked around the Melbourne, Australia office, and did a quick tally:
- 1 x Brazil
- 1 x Phillipines
- 1 x Malaysia
- 2 x England
- 3 x New Zealand
- 3 x Australia
Yeah, no problem, mate.
Well, about 15 years ago, I had a summer job in a chemical factory that made those toilet blocks that you drop in the tank, and it makes your loo water blue, or whatever.
Anyway, my job was crappy (pulling chemical blocks out of the hot moulding maching, and dropping them in blister-pack covers before the stamping machine landed on them (of course, the hand guard had long since been removed, they put it back on whenever the inspectors came)). We came home with a headache every day, dyed blue from the elbows down, smelling of toilet chemicals. It was impossible to get the blue off, and it took 2-3 weeks after I finished working there before I got back to my original colour.
BUT the worst job in the place must've been the chemical guy, who mixed up the nasty stuff at full strength (by the time I saw it, it was 1/100 dilution). The word on the floor was that the most one of those guys used to "survive" was six months, before they went mad, or got poisened or something. Apparently this was their tenth guy in five or six years! They said it made him really agressive and short-tempered, and he had blue cheast, arms, chin and nose.
Ahhh, crappy student summer jobs! I can't believe people did that for a career!